12/05/2011

On Your Left Bike Bell

I have always been intrigued by what people say when they drive a car. The amount of anger and venom expressed verbally when one is behind the wheel amazes me. The inside of a car acts as an expression free bubble of sorts. How many of us would utter the same words in a car if the other person or general public could actually hear us?

My suspicion is that most cyclists are guilty of thinking many of the same things as those who drive, but most of the time our thoughts never make it to our lips when we encounter pedestrians or other cyclists whose behavior we find annoying. Most cyclists seem to substitute a bell for their thoughts, but what if your bell could talk?

A company has produced a "bell" that will allow you to record a message for broadcast from your handlebars.

This product is great for the entire family! A fun way to increase safety !!

This newly developed bicycle horn not only has a traditional bicycle bell sound, but with a press of a button it also allows the rider to record his or her own custom message. This “ON YOUR LEFT” bicycle horn records your voice and then stores the message.

Kids can record fun messages like “get out of my way, here I come!! Adults can record messages like “coming up on your left”. For those riders who only want a traditional standard bicycle bell sound, we have this function on the same unit by pressing another button.

I like their optimism about the upbeat nature of what people might record, however based upon some recent tangential experience I suspect that what would come out of this thing would be far from polite. At a Thanksgiving gathering with friends everyone learned that a party-goer had a new iPhone 4S. I'm sure most readers know, but if you don't, the hallmark feature of the 4S is Siri, a voice command software meant to respond to your commands.

Well, after a big dinner and more than a few adult beverages, the iPhone got passed around and well, Siri was asked some things that were not polite and proper. Siri did a commendable job and did accurately respond with a list of escort services when someone asked about, um, having some special services performed.

So how about it readers, if you had an "On-Your-Left" bike bell, what would you record? Feel free to leave in comments. Also, if someone owns one of these things we would love to have a review for the site so feel free to contact us.

This product is great for the entire family! A fun way to increase safety !!

This newly developed bicycle horn not only has a traditional bicycle bell sound, but with a press of a button it also allows the rider to record his or her own custom message. This “ON YOUR LEFT” bicycle horn records your voice and then stores the message. Kids can record fun messages like “get out of my way, here I come!! Adults can record messages like“coming up on your left”. For those riders who only want a traditional standard bicycle bell sound, we have this function on the same unit by pressing another button.

Comments

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Whaaaaa?

Possibly worthwhile for the speech-impaired or those with laryngitis... except that a voice message is better than a bell for two reasons:

(1) Versatility. But this item seems to only say one thing, which bells already do just fine.

(2) Friendliness: A human voice can communicate "Here I am; please treat me as a human" whereas it's easy to interpret a bell as "this automated personal-space defense system demands that you move aside for its owner." This thing seems to say "This automated personal-space defense system demands that you move aside for its owner, and is trying to simulate a human because the owner doesn't think you're worth the trouble of actually trying to communicate, but for some reason wants to fake it."

I have found a bell is heard better by people wearing ear buds than saying "on your left". So I think the simple bell is better. I suppose you could record the bell and then a phrase. I would be tempted to repeat the rule on signs along the trail that is not always followed: "Walk on the right. Pass on the left."